A group of Poinciana Homeowners have filed a lawsuit against their Homeowners Association and the Developer of Poinciana claiming the Poinciana Homeowners have been injured by the Developer Illegally Continuing to control the Association of Poinciana Villages HOA and the HOA collecting fees and enforcing Deed Restrictions without the legal authority to do so.
The issue is whether or not the actions taken by the APV HOA/Developer have been legal and if not what damages have resulted to the homeowners of Poinciana as a result of these actions?
Florida Homeowners Associations have been compared to the Wild Wild West because of the lack of state oversight and regulations governing them. Poinciana's HOA is the largest in the State of Florida. As might be expected, being the largest HOA it also faces some of the biggest issues and challenges.
Florida HOAs are like the Wild West of local governments
Legal Dispute Between Homeowners and Poinciana HOA Heats Up
APV Lawyer Threatens Sanctions Against Homeowners and Their Lawfirm Unless They Give Up Their Legal Actions.
Lawfirm Responds By Dismissing One Complaint But Says 'Lets Settle This In Court' Over Remaining Seven Complaints.
Lawyer for Poinciana homeowners argues against lawyers for APV and Avatar why case should not be dismissed and should go to trials including injunction placing HOA collection of assessments, deed restrictions and collection of past due assesments on hold.
When Poinciana was established in 1971 there were Deed Restrictions (CC & Rs) granted by the State of Florida which allowed the Poinciana HOA (APV) to be created and to enforce the restrictions and collect HOA fees to pay for the services the HOA rendered.
Please click below to read the 1971 Deed Restrictions that were established for the Polk and Osceola properties in Poinciana.
In 1985 there was a legal dispute between the Poinciana APV HOA and the Poinciana developer then going by the name Avatar. As a result there was a legal agreement signed by all parties representing the developer and the homeowners of Poinciana that defined the rules that the homeowners association would be governed by in the future. This document is called the 1985 Agreement. Please note that page 3 of the agreement refers to the deed restrictions included above as the basis for the HOA right to govern Poinciana Homeowners.
The 1985 agreement may be read by clicking below.
The problem with Florida's HOA Laws is that the only solution for homeowners is to file civil lawsuits against their homeowners association. This is what the Poinciana Homeowners have done. The lawyers for the HOA do everything they legally can do to challenge the lawsuits to keep them from going to court. This makes it so expensive that most homeowners cannot afford to challenge their HOAs and as a result the HOAs get away with ignoring the laws.
The information contained below describes the lawsuit filed by the Poinciana homeowners against the Poinciana HOA and the developer. What the lawsuit claims is that the deed restrictions were not renewed after 30 years from 1971 as required by Florida legal statute 712 and as a result since 2001 the Poinciana HOA has not had the legal authority to enforce the deed restrictions nor collect the HOA fees from the homeowners.
The lawsuit also claims that the HOA and developer have not lived up to the legal commitments made in the 1985 agreement and as a result they have broken (breached) the legal agreement with the Poinciana homeowners.
As a result of these violations of the law the APV and developer have caused damages to be determined against every homeowner owning property in Poinciana, specifically the three property owners filing the legal action.
Poinciana Homeowners File Amended Complaint that Questions Poinciana HOA Right to Collect Fees and Enforce Code Restrictions on Poinciana Homeowners
Issues in Lawsuit
APV Collections and Code Enforcement Actions are Illegal
APV has not followed governing rules agreed to in HOA documents
Developer has not turned over control of HOA to homeowners
Defense Allegations
Poinciana Homeowners were not part of 1985 agreement stating rules for Poinciana HOA
Poinciana HOA has no legal fiduciary responsibility to homeowners how money is spent. Lawsuits over breach of fiduciary responsibility can only be filed against directors, not HOA or its management company.
Poinciana homeowners were never damaged by decision to sell debts to First100
As a result of over 12 months of legal maneuvers to keep the lawsuit from getting to cost and a combined cost of over $200,000 in attorney fees the motions to dismiss the lawsuit will be heard in 10th District Court at 1PM of February 3,2017
